Why has the federal government been so spectacularly unsuccessful in commercializing technology? Cohen goes deep in the economics and politics of several major projects in energy and aerospace, showing how a combination of overly optimistic predictions on the part of technologists, and the fickleness of Congressional delegations who aim to extract monies for their districts without a longterm commitment to the ultimate success of the project lead to billions of dollars in useless waste and extravagance.

A detailed and hard-hitting book, The Technology Pork Barrel is weakened by its focus on the energy and aerospace sectors, where purely private and purely defense projects are also prone to overruns and failure. I would have liked to see some success stories in electronics or biomedicine. But for anybody advocating big governments investments in technology, this is a vital read for what not to do.